A Charmed Christmas Tale
by HollowBox
Summary: Hello and happy holidays! I've been a fan of Charmed since it originally aired! I love the characters and the show, especially during the Prue years. However, my little Christmas tale takes place during Season 7. I hope you enjoy it.


OPENING

A shot of Halliwell Manor adorned with holiday decorations. Then an inside shot of the solarium where Piper is placing baby Chris down in a playpen already occupied by his brother Wyatt. "Ok, guys", Piper said, turning on the television and setting to a children Christmas special, "The electronic babysitter will watch you for awhile, since Auntie Phoebe seems so occupied" "Hmm", Phoebe is sitting nearby, engrossed in her laptop and looks up, "What was that?"

"Oh nothing", Piper replies, "We are just why wondering why you would be working so hard on the day before Christmas Eve instead of spending it with your favorite nephews". "Oh sorry", Phoebe said, "I'm about done. I promised Elise that I get the New Year's column out before today's deadline...It's tough giving love advice to people dateless on New Year's Eve". "Tell me about it", Piper said "story of my life when I was single..You're think you could watch the kids while I start preparing the meal for tomorrow?" "Sure go ahead", Phoebe said. Waiting until Piper left the room, she glances at Wyatt and Chris who are throughly raptured by the classic special "Santa Claus is coming to town". They both started to clap and squeal in delight when the reindeers started to fly. "Ah, the innocence of youth", Phoebe smiled to herself before returning to her column.

Piper was in the kitchen preparing the meal when Paige walks in. "Hey, you think you can grab some egg nog when you're out shopping today", Piper asks. "Oh I'm not going shopping" Paige replies. "You mean you already finished?" Piper asked. "No; actually I've haven't started it yet." "What? Tomorrow is Christmas Eve; what are you waiting for?" "Well, I was starting to stress about it; all the hassling, trying to find parking, the pushing and shoving to grab the last-minute gifts, but I started to thinking, when you're a witch, you don't need to go to the gifts, the gifts come to you...Presents!" Paige said loudly. Orbs swirl about the floor; and when they dissipated in their place were beautiful wrapped presents. "You've got to be kidding me!" Piper scolded.."Doesn't personal gain mean anything to you..you know this is going backfire!".

Distracted by the commotion coming from her sisters, Phoebe goes to the kitchen door. "Paige! you know we can't use our magic that way!" "Oh fine..have it your way!" Paige exasperated, flung her hands at the ill-gotten gains "Return!" The presents disappear in another swirl of orbs.

Meanwhile, Wyatt and Chris continue to watch the television holiday show. Chris started clapping in delight when Santa Claus appears. Wyatt saw how happy his little brother was, and thought how he could really be thrilled. Wyatt holds his little brother's hand, looks at the TV, and blinks his eyes. On the television screen , Santa and his bag of gifts disappears into little golden lights that float out of the screen.

In the kitchen, Piper and Phoebe continue to give Paige a hard time, when suddenly a hearty "Ho Ho Ho" laughter is heard throughout the manor. This sisters rush to the solarium and stop in shock.

Santa Claus was standing in the middle of the room, merriment in his eyes, each arm carrying one of Piper's sons.."You boys are just too precocious to be on the naughty list...ho-ho-ho!", he said in a booming voice.

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are just too stunned to reply.

Roll Season 7 opening credits..Note: Darryl does not appear in this episode

Scenes of San Francisco during the holiday season set to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" as done by Bruce Springteen.

"Wyatt! What have you've done?" Piper exclaims when she finally found her voice. "Well, at least it's not a dragon this time" Paige offers. "Oh, don't be harsh on the lad", Santa Claus said. merriment in his voice. "He just wanted to spread good cheer to his brother that's all" He set Wyatt down and gave Chris to Piper, who could not help but be awed by the good will and joy from this jolly man in the red suit.

Phoebe, finally able to speak, said "Wow, this is so cool"; only to met by harsh glance from Piper. "Well, it is!".

"This is most delightful, but I am a couple of days early. I really must get back to my workshop to prepare for the midnight ride" He heaved his bag, which had also materialized with him, over his shoulder. "Yes, Wyatt", Piper said to her son in a voice of near panic, "Send the nice jolly man back to where he came from". Wyatt looked at the television set, by which time the show had finished, and was now showing a football game. Looking up his mother, he just smiled. "Great, he either can't or won't or both...Leo!" Piper said in a loud voice.

Leo orbs in. "Santa!" He exclaims, surprised. "Leo, my boy, how are you?" Santa set his bag down to embrace Leo. "Wait, you two know each other?" Piper asks. "Of course", Santa replies, "Leo has always been on top of my nice list, though he sort of slip a bit lately with Gideon and all and then there was that Avatars business..Still his heart is always in the right place". Leo, blushing, said "Well, it was on Santa's recommendation that I first became a whitelighter". "And now you made it to Elder; I knew you go far my boy", Santa said, patting Leo on the back.

"I hate to break this up, but do you have any ideas how to send Santa back?" Piper said. "I don't think Wyatt is able to". "Hey Leo", Paige said, "maybe we can both orb him back". "No", Leo replied "Santa has a special kind of magic that's pretty much immune to most witchcraft ,whitelighter and even demonic powers". "Well, Wyatt brought him here somehow". Phoebe said. "He probably combined his power with Chris", Leo said. "But Chris doesn't have any powers yet" Phoebe said. "We know he will grow up to be a powerful witch", Leo said. "Wyatt must have tapped into that power and combined it with his own to bring Santa Claus here".

"Well, no matter" Santa said, "I can use my own magic to get back. Where's your chimney?" "Uh, over there", Piper said pointing to the living room. Santa headed there, followed by the others.

When he crossed the foyer, he stopped to glance at the chandelier hanging above. He turned back to the others. "Before I leave however," he said, "I want to make an early delivery to you, child", looking at Phoebe.

"Me? But, uh-", Phoebe stammered. Santa took her by the hands, led her to the spot directly below the chandelier. "I believe you need to stand right here" he said, "Now, just close your eyes and breath, relax". He said in gentle tones. Phoebe did what he said. Santa looks up at the chandelier and nods his head.

Suddenly, revolving light beams started streaming down from the chandelier enveloping Phoebe. Phoebe, her eyes still shut, felt power - her power - rising inside her. It was as if some barrier had been breached. It felt like it did when she first found the Book of Shadows in the attic and read the Calling the Witches' Power spell and later when the Power of Three was reconstituted with Paige.

The light beams stopped flowing and she opened her eyes and was surprised to find herself levitating just below the ceiling looking down at the astonished looks from her sisters and Leo. "Yippee!" she said, excited. "My active powers are back!"

"Santa, I don't think you should have done that" Leo said. "Oh, fiddlesticks!" Santa replied. "It's high time the Power of Three returned to full force. Besides, those pompous Elders should never have brought into Barbas' ridiculous trial". "I like him", Piper said, nodding her approval. Phoebe floated down to the floor and went to hug Santa. "Thanks, Santa". "My pleasure, child".

Suddenly there was a loud noise on the roof. Santa said "My reindeers have arrived!" He placed his finger on the side on his nose, transforms into a bright light that goes up the chimney,. "Whoa!" Phoebe exclaims. "That's something you don't see everyday!"

Everyone rushes outside to the front yard. On the roof, there was Santa getting into his sleigh that tied to eight reindeers. Wyatt and Chris clap in delight. The scene attracts a few passerbys who stops and stare. "Hey! That's the best decoration I've seen" one exclaims. Piper said "Thanks!" and then to her husband "Leo, do something" "Don't tell me he's going to fly out of here with all these people watching?" Paige asks. "well they will think it was some of sort of trick", Leo said, "That's usually the explanation when someone happens to get a glimpse of the supernatural". "But what about the radars and satellites? Won't they detect that?" Phoebe gestures. "Santa and his flying reindeers are not detected by mortal technology", Leo replies. "It's part of his magic."

"Oh drat" Santa said, "I forgot my bag" He gets out of the sleigh, climbs back into the chimney and drops in. The onlookers gasp. "O-kay!, Phoebe said to the onlookers.."Show's over..hope you enjoyed it" The people clap and move on, except for one man dressed in shabby clothes who continue to stare intently at the sleigh and reindeers on the roof. The sisters, Leo and the boys head back into the manor, not noticing the shabbily dressed man.

Back inside, Santa grabs his bag and patted the heads of the boys. "Stay good, lads". Despite her anxieties, Piper could not but help feel grateful that her sons have the opportunity to meet Santa Claus. Sometimes being magical has it's benefits. "Are you sure it's ok that he can fly out of here during the day, reindeers and all?" she asked Leo. "Sure" Leo said, grabbing his wife by the waist "Stop worrying so much". "Hmm...its my nature", Piper replies.

"Ok then!" Paige said. "I guess I'll go now and shop till I drop!" She grabs her keys and heads to the front door. When she opens the door, there was the man with the shabby clothing standing on the porch. "Forgive me, ma'am", the man said meekly. "I just need a few dollars to get a bite to eat". Paige, feeling the holiday spirit especially with Santa Claus in the house, reached into her purse to give the man some money. As she looked down, she noticed a golden gleam from something tucked in the man's belt. There was "WW" inscribed on the object. Immediately becoming suspicious, she says "Bright shining thing!" The object orbs from the man's belt to her hand. She recognize the object as the power-absorbing athame from Witch Wars. Before she could do anything, a lizard like forked tongue leaped from the man's mouth and wrapped around and retrieved the athame. With a evil grin, the man disappeared in a blink of a eye.

Paige runs back to the living room "Piper! Phoebe!" she screams. "What is it?" Phoebe asks. "There's a warlock around here." Paige said with alarm. Piper pulls from Leo's grasp "Get the boys out of here now" Leo grabs Wyatt and Chris and orbs out. "What does the warlock wants?" Phoebe asks. "I don't know, but he has the athame, the one that absorbs powers". "Santa", Piper said, "I think for your safety you better leave now". Santa doesn't respond; instead he falls to the ground. Behind him, the warlock has stabbed Santa in the back with the athame and pulls it out. "I suppose I could blink out of here" He said to the stunned sisters "but I want to see if this works". He puts his finger on the side of his nose and transforms into a dark mist that floats up into the chimney.

Evil laughter comes from the outside. The sisters rush to the window to see the warlock in Santa's sleigh, holding the reigns of the reindeers, flying off into the sky.

commercial break

Leo bends over Santa, his hands over the wound as it heals. "Thank God the boys weren't here to see that" Piper said with relief. "Well, they are safe at magic school" Leo said.

Santa slowly gets to his feet, helped by Leo. "That fiend has stolen my magic", he said. "Christmas is in danger If I can't do my deliveries tomorrow night, the children will lose hope". Leo continued "This is bad. This may tip the balance between Good and Evil to Evil's side permanently. Santa needs to get his magic back so Christmas can be saved".

"How can we find the warlock? Should we try scrying?" Phoebe asks. "Somehow I don't think that would be a problem..look" Paige said point at the television still tuned in to the football game. The warlock and the reindeers are flying above the stadium. The warlock is shooting dark beams from his hands at the crowd. The people in the crowd that the beam strikes are transformed into dark evil elves complete with pointed ears and nose, wearing black clothing. The TV announcer stammers "I..I can't believe what is happening here.."

Piper grasp, covers her mouth "The exposure!" Santa stood tall, "Young lady" he said to Paige, "take me over there, if you please" Paige starts to object, but Santa held her hand "Now, now if we have the opportunity to siphon off what he took, I want to be there to take it back. "

"And you two young women" addressing Piper and Phoebe "consult your Book of Shadows..there might be something that can reverse this..And Leo, go to the other Elders...tell them to get off their butts and do something".

Meanwhile at the football stadium, the warlock lands the sleigh and reindeers on the 50-yard line, and proceeds to turn the players, coaches, and refs around him into evil elves. The stadium is magically locked down so that no one can leave.

The warlock proclaims "Once I have my army of evil no one can challenge for the throne of the Underworld!"

Paige with Santa orbs in. Paige tk-orbs various items at him, but the warlock easily deflects everything using a variety of different powers. She then says "Underworld!", and the warlock orbs over there, temporarily stopping the havoc.

However, the warlock blinks behind Paige and knocks her out with a chop to the neck. Santa is incense by this and almost attacks the warlock but then stops himself. The warlock just sneers "Pathetic fool" and continues to create his evil army.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Leo with Piper and Phoebe orbs in. Leo tends to Paige. The news they relay is not good. There's nothing in the Book to stop the warlock. The elders can't or won't help. Leo say they are tightlipped around him, probably because of what happened with the Avatars. Piper snorts "Typically useless; ok then let's stop this guy ourselves".

Piper gestures to blow up the warlock. However, her blasts are stopped by what appears to be a shield around him that is only visible when the blasts are deflected. "Remember warlocks steal witches' powers" Phoebe points out. "Well lets see if this works", Piper gestures with both hands and the warlock is frozen in place. "Ha!" She exclaims triumphantly "Old school rocks!".

"Wait' Phoebe says "Look!" The warlock starts to move slowly at first and then the freeze completely wears off. "Damn!" Piper says. "Fools", the warlock says. "Kill them!" he commands his army of evil elves. The elves move to attack the sisters. Piper gestures her hands; the elves freeze. "Well at least it works on them". "Yes, but it will only buy us a little time, we have figure out a way to stop him"

Phoebe then notices that athame in the sleigh. She tells Paige to orb it to them. Paige, who by now is fully healed, shouts "Athame!" and it orbs over to her. Phoebe takes it from her and goes up to Santa, "Quick, throw it at the warlock and your powers will return back to you". Santa looks at her sadly, and shakes his head no. "What? you can't be serious?", she grabs him by the shoulder, then gasps and closes her eyes as she is receiving a premonition.

Actually not so much a premonition of the future, but a vision of the past. Phoebe sees a what looks to be a Eastern European village, a village is ravaged by war and plague. She knows she is seeing the the far past, the Dark Ages maybe? People are out on the street, hungry, sick and cold. There is a hooded dark figure walking among them; Pheobe can almost sense the evil from this figure..she knows a demon when she sees one. The figure pulls his hood back, looks around at the misery around him with a pleased look.

Phoebe gasps; she recognizes the demon; it's the Source - the one before Cole - except that his face is not disfigured though it has the demonic markings of his clan. "This must be before he became the Source; when he was an upper-level demon like Balthalzor", Phoebe muses, allowing herself a brief but familiar regret when it comes to Cole.

A horse-drawn wagon enters the village. Suddenly, children run from dilapidated houses to swarm the wagon. "Nikolaous! Nikolaous!" the children are screaming. Adults too go up to the wagon. A young man climbs down from the wagon and hugs the children. "That's Santa..a lot younger and thinner, and cute!" she couldn't help but noticed. "Hey! Wait a minute..Nikolaous..Saint Nicholas!" Phoebe wonders. The man the crowd calls Nikolaous grabs a bag from his wagon, reaches in it, and retrieves a small wooden flute and gives to a boy, the second gift is a blue marble to the next boy, a girl receives a home made doll. When all the children have received gifts, then the adults move in. Each has a shoe in their hand..Nikolaous places a coin or some other trinket in the shoe.

Phoebe realized she forgot about the demon. He has stood back when the Nikolaous arrived. For a second, Phoebe was fearful he might attack the crowd. However, the future Source of All Evil shrank back into the shadows, and shimmers out. It was if the good will generated by Nikolaous' visit drove him back. "What did Leo say about demonic power not affecting Santa's magic?" Phoebe muses.

"The Lord bless you, Nikolaous, you are a living saint." a woman from the crowd said. He smiles "This is how the Prince of Peace intended for us to be, caring and loving another as innocent children do", he replied Phoebe realizing she understands the language they are speaking (Greek? Bulgarian? when this is over, i have to do some research on St. Nicholas) and then wonders if this an advancement of her power. The man that will become Santa Claus suddenly looks up and appears to be acknowledging her with a smile. "What?" Phoebe thinks shocked, "He can't be seeing me!"

Then suddenly Phoebe is bombarded by a series of images. Whereas her vision of the past thus far seems to be like watching a movie, now it is the more like a premonition of the future she usually gets - colorless jarring flashes of confusing images one after another. A man dressed in some sort of sporting uniform standing dark standing in a dark hallway, a dark blond-haired woman appearing to be sneaking up behind him as if to attack, the man lying on the group with the woman standing over him, next the woman is holding his hand and the man still lying on the floor but he looks like he's sobbing or upset. Suddenly Phoebe's premonition ends there and she is brought back to the present.

"Quick Leo", Phoebe says, "Bring Wyatt and Chris here". "What!" Piper exclaim, "they can't be here!". "Trust me" Phoebe says. Leo orbs out. Piper starts to argue, but Phoebe cuts here, "Look around, the kids are not affected by the transformations". And it was true, though the adults are turing evil, the kids under 12 or so are not affected, though they are scared. "Round up as many kids as you can, we have no time to waste" The sisters spent the next minutes as rounding up as many children as they are able; Leo orbs in with Wyatt and Chris. Pretty soon there were about a hundred or so children in the middle of the football field.

"Ok Phoebe what-" Piper starts, but Phoebe cuts her off "Shh! I need to concentrate". She closes her eyes and says "Let all who have ears let them hear the children gathered here". "Ok, kids," Phoebe says, "Little Town of Bethlehem, from the top",

The children started singing, and it was as if they were plugged into the sound system because their voices carried throughout the stadium. The evil elves stop their havoc and listened. Those that were able to recognize their own children started turning back into human.

"NO!" the warlock shouted and throws energy blasts at the children. However, Piper and Paige use their powers to destroy or deflect the blasts.

"Now for the final act", Phoebe says. She closed her eyes again, and starts to bring up her empathy power. She channels the joy, innocence and good will emanating from the children singing Christmas carols; she uses her empathy to focus this energy, the embodiment of pure Christmas magic into pure white light and like a laser beam aims it squaring at the warlock. The beam strikes the warlock. Being engulfed by pure goodness, he screams and, with an explosion, is vanquished into the wasteland.

Not finished yet, Phoebe then levitates and absorbs the Santa magic that was stolen. She looks down at Santa, "Time to return the favor." She reaches her hands and channels the magic back to Santa.

All around the stadium, the evil elves revert back to human. Parents are reunited with their children. Friends and family hug each other. Nobody is sure what exactly happened, but everyone is relieved and happy to see each other.

"Well, how are we going to explain this?" Paige wonders. "Look", Phoebe points, "maybe we don't have to". A small ball of white light floats down and simmers into the Angel of Destiny. She claps her hands and the two Cleaners in white suits appear. "About time", Piper exclaims, "Why didn't you come before?" and then before she could stop herself. "or when Prue died for that matter, Where the hell were you then? The Source wouldn't have had a chance to double cross us and Prue would still be..." she gets emotional, unable to finish. She buries her head into Leo who consoles her. "Everything that happens is destined that way", the Angel say soothingly, "that rule even transcends exposure". "Speaking of which", she turns to the Cleaners, "Modification of memories and video recordings but not a total wipe. Let people think there was a altercation here that was overcome by good". The Cleaners wave their hands, "Done" one of them says and they vanish.

Santa who all this while was getting reacquainted with his reindeers, now says "It's time to head back if I am going to make my rounds tomorrow night" and heads into his sleigh. "What?" Piper exclaims, "you just going to fly out of here in front of all these people?" "Yes", the Angel answered "Sometimes people need to wonder about things that cannot be easily explained. This helps keep their spirituality in balance with other aspects of what makes them human".

By this time Santa and his reindeer were flying above the stadium, circling around twice above the cheering crowd below, and proclaiming that is heard by all (whether due to Phoebe's spell or Santa's own magic who can say): "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night".

EPILOGUE:

That evening back at the manor: Piper and Phoebe are huddled together on the living room couch viewing the television set. It is showing the home Christmas video (as seen in "Thank you for not Morphing"). The sisters are watching their parents, little Prue and themselves as toddlers laughing and being joyful. "The last Christmas we celebrated as a family" Phoebe says quietly wiping away a tear. Piper just nods and they both watch in silence at the scene before them. The video ends and neither speaks, both reflecting on their lost loved ones and how much they miss them yet grateful for the memories.

Piper looks at Phoebe, who seems especially emotional. She hugs her sister and waits for her to tell her what is troubling her. After a few minutes, Phoebe speaks quietly, "I had a premonition today". "Yes, it helped us the defeat the warlock -" Piper started, "No, it came after that one, I saw me and Cal Greene".

Piper said, "Phoebe, we're sure that future will never come to pass, too many things have happened..Prue's death, Leo and I got back together, I don't have a daughter..things are different now from what we saw when we went there." "When Elders took my powers, I thought that would be true", Phoebe said, "I thought that the future where I use my powers to kill a man out of vengeance would not happen. The future where I was burned alive and caused an international witch hunt. Then when I got my powers back, I thought maybe that part might still come true; it is only a little over a year now from when it's supposed to happen"

"But in my premonition", Phoebe continued, "I saw myself and Cal Green in that hallway at the stadium. He was wearing the baseball uniform." Piper clutched her sister hands. Phoebe looks at her.."But, Piper, I didn't see me killing me; I saw him asking me for mercy, and I saw myself forgiving him". Phoebe smiled at looked at Piper. "And I know this sounds crazy; I think Santa knew this, I think that's why he gave me back my powers". Piper said smiling, "Well, he does know when you're naughty or nice. He probably knows what's in your heart too. And he knows you're not the Woogey, or Marta Hari or the Queen of the Underworld, so stop thinking like that!"

They hugged again and then Piper gets up, "Dad says he's coming early tomorrow, I better make sure the ham is defrosted by then". "Hey, whatever happened to the athame?" Phoebe asks, "In the excitement, I forgot about it". "Oh, I told Leo to get rid of it", Piper said, "hopefully, we've seen the last of that damn thing."

Suddenly the front door open and Paige staggers in, each arm carrying a multitude of shopping bags, most of which are in danger of being dropped. Piper rushes to help her with the bags. "I did it!" Paige exclaims proudly "I pushed and clawed my way through the holiday throng at the mall without doing any orbing, rhyming or any other voodoo. I did it all on my own, thank you very much!"

"And you be interested to know - the talk of the town is that halftime show. A great recreation of the cult classic "Santa Claus conquers the Martians". Phoebe laughs while Paige places the bags under the Christmas tree. "I wonder how much of that is the Cleaners and how much is people's rationalizing what they think they saw".

"Hey, what's this?" Paige asks. There were three small wooden boxes wrapped in a red ribbon under the tree. She pick them and reads the small label on on each. "It says it from Nikolaous for each of us". She opens hers; its the blue marble. Piper opens her gift and it is the homemade doll. Phoebe smiles, "I don't need a premonition to know what this is." Sure enough, it's a small wooden flute.

"I don't get it' Paige says. Phoebe smiles "These are just reminders of what a saint Santa Claus really is and..not to get all Linus on you... of what Christmas is truly about"

"Huh"? Piper ask confused. Phoebe said "I'll explain later, just know this is the real Power of Three"..she hugs her sisters fiercely as they hug her back.

END


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